I ended up doing a big haul from Texas all the way up to Connecticut to get cracking on PhD work. All my saltwater stuff came with, which wasn't a lot of stuff seeing as how I mainly had picos. I had one unfortunate casualty, that being my swimming crab. It did a crab version of jack-knifing during a molt (he injured his arm somehow and tried to molt with the injury - that seemed to play a part 
poor guy). The rest of my sw stuff made it through, along with almost all of my fw stuff where I only lost a couple guppies. Not bad for a 4-day cross country move.
My husband and I have decided to make a small change and actually set up an "aquarium room" where all the big tanks will reside. We also decided that some of the tanks actually need to be nice to look at this time, rather than just tubs full of scrubbly stuff that's interesting to poke at with a stick. On my desk I've got my 1-gallon bowl redone:
I'm pretty happy with that one, but as I have seen this month, I am incapable of putting together nice-looking tanks larger than 5 gallons. If you want proof, you may examine the horror that's next to my larger marine tank, dayglow pot and all: http
/img.photobucket.com/albums/v281/kwippo/fw_20l_1.jpg - that's what I want to avoid doing to my marine tank, aside from the fact that there are too friggin many fish in there (a temporary situation to be cleared up this evening probably).
This is my new repository for all of my other marine beasties that traveled with me, except the big gulf coast hermits - they have their own tub since they're rip everything apart anyway.
The tank is 20g and has been stable so far. I have around 18-20lbs of LR in there right now. I can't stack it though - I fear for it toppling even if stacked with the critters I have in there. Plus, currently it makes a network of tunnels that my grizzled engineer goby seems to be enjoying. More importantly, it's also a network of tunnels that allow me to find the goby easily, since he's quite difficult to feed.
Current beasties that are in it are:
- 3 Turbos
- 2 cowries
- 1 conch
- 1 mine (ten-line) urchin
- A bunch of Clibanarius erythropus hermits
- the evil goby
I don't want to heavily stock it, but there is quite a big empty vertical space that I never had in any of the tubs I'd messed with before. I also need to put something on the back, but I don't want to paint it. I wasn't sure if those rolls of tank background were worth buying since I've never used one before. Where equipment goes, I will need better lighting, but I'm working on that. I probably won't have any fancy lights though, since I wasn't planning on demanding corals. Given the multitude of gorgeous seaweeds available here in CT that tolerate warm water, I may try to get some of that growing if the snails don't eat it all. If anyone has other suggestions for how to fill up that space though, do tell!
I'd also like to put one other fish in, something that won't just hide in the rocks all day. My husband wanted a tomato clown (
) which is a no-no as far as I can see in a tank that size. I was thinking along the lines of something like a royal gramma, but I had one of those back in TX and it was also a cave fish. Whatever goes in though has to be something that won't pick at my beloved tiger cowrie when it has its mantle extended.
So, what would YOU do to get the tank looking more interesting if you had to leave the rocks more-or-less as they are?
poor guy). The rest of my sw stuff made it through, along with almost all of my fw stuff where I only lost a couple guppies. Not bad for a 4-day cross country move. My husband and I have decided to make a small change and actually set up an "aquarium room" where all the big tanks will reside. We also decided that some of the tanks actually need to be nice to look at this time, rather than just tubs full of scrubbly stuff that's interesting to poke at with a stick. On my desk I've got my 1-gallon bowl redone:
I'm pretty happy with that one, but as I have seen this month, I am incapable of putting together nice-looking tanks larger than 5 gallons. If you want proof, you may examine the horror that's next to my larger marine tank, dayglow pot and all: http
/img.photobucket.com/albums/v281/kwippo/fw_20l_1.jpg - that's what I want to avoid doing to my marine tank, aside from the fact that there are too friggin many fish in there (a temporary situation to be cleared up this evening probably).This is my new repository for all of my other marine beasties that traveled with me, except the big gulf coast hermits - they have their own tub since they're rip everything apart anyway.
The tank is 20g and has been stable so far. I have around 18-20lbs of LR in there right now. I can't stack it though - I fear for it toppling even if stacked with the critters I have in there. Plus, currently it makes a network of tunnels that my grizzled engineer goby seems to be enjoying. More importantly, it's also a network of tunnels that allow me to find the goby easily, since he's quite difficult to feed.
Current beasties that are in it are:
- 3 Turbos
- 2 cowries
- 1 conch
- 1 mine (ten-line) urchin
- A bunch of Clibanarius erythropus hermits
- the evil goby
I don't want to heavily stock it, but there is quite a big empty vertical space that I never had in any of the tubs I'd messed with before. I also need to put something on the back, but I don't want to paint it. I wasn't sure if those rolls of tank background were worth buying since I've never used one before. Where equipment goes, I will need better lighting, but I'm working on that. I probably won't have any fancy lights though, since I wasn't planning on demanding corals. Given the multitude of gorgeous seaweeds available here in CT that tolerate warm water, I may try to get some of that growing if the snails don't eat it all. If anyone has other suggestions for how to fill up that space though, do tell!
I'd also like to put one other fish in, something that won't just hide in the rocks all day. My husband wanted a tomato clown (
) which is a no-no as far as I can see in a tank that size. I was thinking along the lines of something like a royal gramma, but I had one of those back in TX and it was also a cave fish. Whatever goes in though has to be something that won't pick at my beloved tiger cowrie when it has its mantle extended.So, what would YOU do to get the tank looking more interesting if you had to leave the rocks more-or-less as they are?
